WASHINGTON, May 17: Pakistan was believed to have been kept informed by the United States of intelligence leads coming in throughout the summer of 2001 about a possible Al Qaeda terrorist hit against American interests.

The intelligence pointers have been a subject of intense debate here since Thursday following leaks that the Bush administration had received briefings in the summer before the Sept 11 attacks that associates of Osama bin Laden might be planning airline hijackings. But administration officials have stressed that the briefings were non-specific and there was no indication that there were any plans to use hijacked planes as missiles.

Pakistan, because of its links with the Taliban regime, was under constant pressure from the administration in that entire period to force the Kabul regime to stop providing sanctuary to Osama and Al Qaeda.

Islamabad was told of the chatter that was coming in on the intelligence network that Al Qaeda might be planning an operation against US interests. But since US officials themselves had no specific information, what was conveyed to Pakistan was also of a generalized nature, according to diplomatic sources here.

But there was enough concern in Washington about what was happening to make Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet pay a visit to Pakistan in June or July of 2001 when he must have informed Pakistani officials of the US intelligence community’s apprehensions and urged greater cooperation.

It is also worth recalling that the then chief of Inter-Services Intelligence, Gen Mahmud Ahmad, was asked to come to the United States in September and was actually here when the attacks on New York and the Pentagon took place. The general, who had to extend his stay here because of the cancellation of all flights after the attacks, was said to have had chilly sessions with US officials on the issue of Pakistan’s relations with the Taliban. Gen Mahmud Ahmad was asked to resign shortly after returning to Pakistan.

At that time, US officials had their own direct and indirect channels of communication with the Taliban, two of whose representatives were based in New York. Senior US officials visiting Islamabad also had meetings with the Taliban representatives. These contacts were broken off following persistent Taliban intransigence on US demands that they should expel Osama and his associates from Afghanistan. American concerns, as also conveyed to Pakistan, had increased after the so-called Millennium Plot, which was thwarted by widespread arrests.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice appeared before the press on Thursday afternoon to say that while there were specific threats that Al Qaeda attacks against US interest might be “in the works”, the threats were principally focused overseas.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said it should be remembered that the pre-Sept 11 world was a different world from the post-Sept 11 world, and no one could have imagined at that time that planes would be hijacked and used as weapons to hit targets within the US.